A few months ago, it was exciting but maybe not so impactful to say that the future of the workplace will be digital. Every organization knows that the technology is here to stay, but that it just doesn’t stack up to face-to-face work and collaboration.
In our present circumstances, organizations have had no choice but to implement online collaborative tools—and not necessarily to the detriment of employee engagement and productivity.
Remote employees work 1.4 more days a month than in-office employees, according to a survey conducted by Airtasker, some employees claiming that the lackluster technological environment at their workplace makes it harder to focus than their home “offices”—whether it’s an actual office or just the kitchen.
Despite the promising numbers on remote work, there’s still one issue that comes with the the (very possible) prospect of long-term remote work in our collective future: stress management.
For workers who weren’t used to working remotely before the COVID-19 crisis, the ability to work from home likely seemed like a novelty at first. The more personal benefits to it, like not having to commute, alongside lighter workloads made the transition more manageable.
However, as time passes and many settle into a new routine, the usual, normal workplace stressors are beginning to crop back up. And with the most common virtual working tools still not making necessary information and collaboration accessible to all employees, the stress will continue to mount.
There are many employee-centric methods for reducing stress, such as stepping away from screens for a few moments and connecting on a personal level with your coworkers, but a surefire way managers can reduce their employees’ stress is by recognizing the relationship between employee engagement and stress and working to improve on it.
Engaged employees are productive employees are happy employees. When everyone’s remote, it becomes harder to sort and disseminate information they need to do their jobs.
Investing in a virtual platform that:
• proliferates company-wide announcements visibly;
• makes collaboration within and between departments seamless; and
• manages and actionates innovative ideas
will engage your employees, reduce their work-related woes, and improve your organization’s ROI for your innovation projects.
